It Pays to be Honest

But this time it did the exact opposite, literally. At least I'll be able to sleep with a peaceful mind tonight.

Today I worked a double shift at Chili's. That's from 10:30 am to about 9:00 pm with only a 30 minute break in between shifts. I guess towards the end of that I was starting to get a little scatter-brained because at one point I "blacked-out." Here's what happened.

Let me start by saying that when someone pays for their meal there are a few ways it can be completed. If credit card is used, I run the card, return the receipt, and then close the check after the tip is written and receipt signed. If cash is used, I change out the money using my own "bank" of money that I bring each shift, return the change, and simply close out the check, which means the bill has been accounted for and I have the money. They then tip using cash, if anything. I usually wait to close the bill until I have collected their tip (even though I can close it right away) just because that is when I would close the bill if credit card is used, and that helps to keep everything the same and in line in my mind.

So tonight a customer paid in cash, I changed it out, and then waited to close their bill until I collected the tip. Well they stayed around for a little bit just chatting, and by the time they left and I went to close their bill I had apparently completely forgotten what happened because I went to close their check and I couldn't. It said they still owed me money for their bill. I racked my brain trying to remember how they paid for their meal and I kept remembering them paying by credit card. (At this point two things should have tipped me off that they paid in cash, a) I had cash for a tip, and b) there was no credit card number in the payment area. But I felt positive they used a card and remember, this was a long day for me. My brain was seemingly elsewhere.) After a minor mental freak-out, I went to my manager and told her that I was missing a payment for these people, but I didn't know how that happened (they didn't seem like the kind to dine-and-dash). I asked her if that meant I would have to pay for their meal out of my tips, and she said that she would just "comp" the customers meal (that is Chili's policy, I guess). I told her not to do it right away because I wanted go through my book and pockets again to make sure I hadn't missed the payment somewhere (as in a large amount of cash I wouldn't normally have).

Of course then things started to get busy, and you can't start a new check at the same table if the check from the previous guest hasn't been closed out, so she "comped" the meal and the night went on. At the end of the night after checking out with the manager I went to count my tips and clock-out. As I was counting my tips though I realized I had much more than was reasonable to have made in one Sunday night -- forty dollars more. It was at this point that I realized the mysterious missing payment must have been paid for in cash and I simply forgot to close the check. Now I had two options: leave with a hefty amount of tips or tell my manager what I imagined happened. Naturally, I told her. (This is where honesty literally didn't pay.) After the embarrassment of explaining myself, she told me to keep it! I was shocked, but even then I didn't feel right about keeping the money. I mean $40 isn't much to a huge chain restaurant, but I still would have felt guilty having the restaurant "comp" the meal only to let me keep the payment for it because I had had a senior moment (no offense). In the end, I asked her if she could just keep it and put it in the safe so at least the company had the money for the food they "comped," and that's what she did. Then she said, "Just be more careful next time."

Really?! Not even a thank you? I mean I didn't expect her to get down on her knees and praise me. After all, I had made a mistake and I should be more careful, but I still thought she would at least say thanks or something for my honesty and for taking responsibility for my mistake. (I don't think most of the other servers would have told her, and not because they're bad people but because many of them talk about how broke they are and forty extra bucks would be helpful. Then again, they probably wouldn't have made the mistake in the first place.) So even in a non-literal sense it didn't pay to be honest tonight. I think any one of the other managers would have recognized my honesty and acknowledged it, but not this one. Oh well, I guess I can't win them all.



Footnote: As I retold this story here, it seems completely obvious all along that the customer paid by cash, but somehow that just didn't cross my mind at the time. Maybe I was afraid of the possibility that they actually hadn't paid, and if I closed their check by cash that would mean I would lose a lot if not all my tips paying for their meal. That fear must have blinded me from the obvious truth. Anyway, I feel okay about it all because in the end Chili's got the money that was rightfully theirs.